Tulips were introduced into Europe by an Austrian ambassador at the Ottoman court
Tulips are depicted on a variety of Ottoman decorative arts including textiles and ceramics. Called lale in Ottoman-Turkish, tulips held a range of meanings in Muslim contexts. For Sufis in the Ottoman realms, the numerical value assigned to the letters forming the word lale, the total being 66, corresponded to the value assigned to the letters for Allah which suggested a ...